Page 4 of Secrets of the Forgotten Heir

Panic rose through me. The nearest person who could help her would be in Witchlight Cove and that was a four-hour drive away. ‘Come on Maddie, wake up. Wake up! Please wake up.’

Tears welled in my eyes. I was freaking out and also filled with frustration. If I’d inherited even a fraction of my mother’s magic the way witches normally do, I could have done something but, as usual, I had nothing.

‘Maddie! Maddie!’ I carried her to my stained sofa and Eva immediately jumped up and licked her face. I was about to tell her to stop – it didn’t feel like the most hygienic thing to do to an unconscious woman – when myfriend stirred. Great, just what we needed: dog slobber as a medical cure.

‘What…?’ she mumbled, her voice groggy and confused.

‘Maddie, can you hear me, love?’ The old endearment slipped out before I could stop it.

She sat up, touched a hand to her head but left her eyes scrunched closed. ‘Did I faint?’

‘Yeah, you fainted all right! Let me get you some water. Stay still.’ I ran into the kitchen, filled a glass of water then stood over her protectively and watched eagle-eyed as she took a few sips. She swallowed hard a few times then carefully set the glass down.

I folded my arms. ‘That wasn’t a normal faint, Maddie.’

‘Sure it was,’ she lied airily. ‘I didn’t eat on the way down here. It was probably low blood sugar, that’s all.’ She tried to look at me innocently as if I was actually going to believe her, which obviously I wasn’t.

My weak empathy skills don’t let me know if someone is dishonest but I didn’t need magic to tell me she was lying because I had a whole childhood of fibs to compare it to.

‘Your fingers wereglowing, Maddie. Fingers don’t glow from low blood sugar!’

She sat up a little straighter and rubbed the back of her head. She hadn’t hit it when she fell but I guessed she was battling a serious headache. ‘I had to put a couple of new wardson the house before I came out,’ she said finally. She picked up the glass again. ‘Big wards.’

‘Why?’ I asked. The house was always heavily warded. My combat training was meant to be used as a last resort if someone breached the defences and came for the Flame, but we’d never truly expected anyone to get that far.

I narrowed my eyes at my best friend; I didn’t believe putting up those wards had made Maddie collapse. As an alchemist, she had some crazy skills and she’d been warding for years. Some of the witches before her – my great-great-grandmothers – had been guardians for decades and in all my training they’d never mentioned magically glowing fingers and fainting as something I should expect to face.

If Maddie had needed to increase the wards past their usual level, that sounded like a pressing issue. ‘What did you need new wards for?’

Her lips pursed and that flutter hit me again: nervousness, fear. Yes, fear was definitely the strongest. My stomach clenched.

‘There’s a guy – an entrepreneur who’s into real estate. He’s been poking around.’

‘Poking around? What does that mean?’

Maddie’s gaze shifted uneasily. ‘He’s put in an application to take over as patron of the Eternal Flame.’

My jaw dropped. ‘What? He can’t do that! The protection of the Flame has been in my mother’s family for centuries.’

‘I know.’ Maddie’s voice had quietened. ‘But he found out that you’re not there. That’s one of the reasons I came – you have to show your face in Witchlight Cove, be around the house for a bit, so he knows that getting his hands on it won’t be as straightforward as he thinks.’

‘It’smyhouse!’ I protested. ‘My family has a tenancy that’s passed down the generations.’

She looked resigned. ‘Sure, but you haven’t been a tenant for ten years, Bea. It’s only because Nana’s the police chief that people haven’t been skulking around and trying to get the guardianship before now.’

I clenched my teeth with frustration – and shame.

Maddie continued, ‘This is really serious, Bea. You know I wouldn’t be here otherwise. If he gets the guardianship, he can do what he wants with the house. I figured that with your PI skills, maybe you could dig up some dirt on him, make sure that he can never take our home.’

I should have anticipated this day would come at some point but I’d avoided thinking about Witchlight, the Flame, everything. ‘Digging up dirt on someone magical might not be that easy. In the non-magical world I have sources,access to databases and information. I won’t have any of those in Witchlight. It’s going to take time, time I can’t afford.’

She leaned forward. ‘I didn’t come here cap in hand like an idiot. I knew you’d need an income if you came home, so I sorted you a job at the station with Nana. You’ll have access to the magical police files.’

I stared at her. ‘You got me a job?’ I wasn’t sure whether to be grateful or horrified. Next thing I knew, she’d be finding me a husband. Still, it was telling: if Maddie had set up some massive wards and arranged my future employment, she really was worried.

She tried to look casual. ‘I knew you were working as a PI and I thought you’d want something similar. Besides, Nana’s been struggling without someone to man the phones at the station since Victor retired. You working there would kill two birds, so to speak. And you never know, maybe you’ll like it and stick around for a bit.’

Thatwas the job? Answering the phones at a police station? I had a ridiculous vision of myself plugging phone lines into a board like they’d used to do in the olden days. ‘What’s the other reason?’ I said, aware that I was ignoring her previous comment.

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